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Kettlebell Personal TGU Revelation Today

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dnguyen411

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I had a personal revelation with my TGUs today. For the longest time, I've been concentrating on making sure my wrist and arm were straight and perpendicular to my body. However, as the weight got heavier, I should have been concentrating on the center of mass (COM) of the bell itself. It's a subtle difference but I found that when I align the COM perpendicular to my body, I instantly felt no pain in my right wrist and felt like I could hold the weight forever.

I think it took my brain a long time to figure this out since during my 5x5 Stronglifts training with a barbell emphasize centering the bar as the COM is approximately dead center to the barbell.

This realization has probably been shared before, it may be in the S&S book (its been several months since I looked), and any SFG could have told be that if I had enough time/money to have a coaching session, but I guess it took months of practice to finally figure this out.
 
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Thanks for sharing. I'm learning this in my first few session with 32kg getups. My wrist is the sticking point and I'm having to learn the new balance point.
 
Cool! I mostly go by "feeling" rather than "looks". Once it feels comfortable, secure, stable, etc THEN I look and see how it fits that way.
 
Ideally, you want to hold the bell in such a way, that the centre of its mass falls straight through the skeletal structure of the supporting body, without excessive use of muscular strength to hold the bell there. In the case of a TGU, that would mean that the heavier the bell, i.e. the larger, the more the hand holding the bell will have to move toward the centre of the body in order for the centre of mass of the bell to fall directly above the shoulder.
 
I guess I need to spend more time reading the articles... I still felt good that I came to the COM realization through practice. Kind of like riding a bike... the actual practice of learning how to ride a bike and continue use of a bike makes you a pretty good bike rider. Not perfect, but good enough to not crash.
 
Hello,

As @Pavel Macek says, in function of the weight you are using, COM changes. Then, this is like learning to use several kinds of bikes. That is all the beauty of this move : we are always oblige to learn and re-learn it, to refine our technique.

Depending on the jumps we do, learning time can be more or less long. The more you do big jumps, the more COM changes, the more you have to spend time learning new patterns to do the move properly and with safety.

Kind regards,

Pet'
 
I think also the grip will kind of lay on a bit of a diagonal in your hand rather than straight - something I figured out after a few months.
 
Hello,

I think also the grip will kind of lay on a bit of a diagonal in your hand rather than straight - something I figured out after a few months.
That is true. To a certain extent, it makes the wrist work "easier" because it reduce hyperextension. Indeed, the internal corner of the handle can touch your forearm.



Kind regards,

Pet'
 
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